EXCLUSIVE:Alexandra Shipp (X-Men: Apocalypse, Straight Outta Compton) is in final negotiations as the female lead in the reboot of Shaft from director Tim Story and producers John Davis and Kenya Barris. Shipp joins Samuel L. Jackson, Richard Roundtree (who starred in the original) and Jesse T. Usher. The production goes before the cameras next month.

New Line and Netflix are partnering on this film with Netflix financing more than half the film’s high $30M budget for international rights and will stream Shaft outside of the U.S. after New Line releases it theatrically domestically.

Shaft‘s new storyline:Working for the FBI, estranged from his father and determined not to be anything like him, John Shaft Jr. reluctantly enlists his father’s help to find out who killed his best friend Karim and bring down a drug-trafficking/money-laundering operation in NYC.

The script was written by black-ish creator Barris and Alex Barnow. Executive producers on the project are Ira Napoliello and Marc Fischer.

Shipp, who’s also in the upcoming X-Men: Dark Phoenix, is repped by WME, LINK and law firm Stone Genow.